The Burnham Library of Architecture opened at the Art Institute of Chicago on January 12, 1920. Designed by Howard Van Doren Shaw, the addition stood south of and adjacent to the Ryerson Library within the museum's Beaux-Arts Michigan Avenue complex. The opening expanded the Art Institute's research infrastructure beyond galleries and classrooms, giving architecture a dedicated scholarly home inside one of the United States' major art museums. Named for Daniel Burnham, whose career was inseparable from Chicago's architectural identity, the library connected museum collecting, design education, and architectural documentation at a moment when American institutions were formalizing the study of architecture as cultural history.
It anchored architectural research within the Art Institute's broader museum and school ecosystem.